On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 12:01 PM, Martin Langhoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 4:52 PM, Michael Stone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> "Physical security is not our problem"... (at least yet). >> >> Still sure that you want the XS to be involved in the theft-deterrence >> protocol? :) > >... > but I'm not aware of any scheme *without* something like bitfrost that > has a reasonable cost-benefit (or complexity-benefit) ratio.
Here's a crazy implementation idea for adding pre-boot security code to ANY standard PC platform. Build a basic PCI hardware 'device' card with little more then ROM. When a standard BIOS detects device card ROM, it executes it before even attempting to boot the computer. Glue these cards into a slot in any computer on which you want special pre-boot security... Note: I have no idea what ROM services are available to device ROMs. For example, can a device ROM call into the BIOS to do disk IO at this point in the boot process? Is there anything that such a card could usefully do with nothing more then its code. What if you add a small amount of battery backed CMOS and an onboard clock chip to the card? Bill Bogstad _______________________________________________ Server-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
